San Manuel area may get new underground mine

TUCSON — Another new, major Southern Arizona copper mine is in the planning stages near San Manuel, where copper was mined for many decades.

The Arizona Daily Star reports that the Canadian company Redhawk Resources Inc. is conducting an economic study for Copper Creek, an underground mine in the Galiuro Mountains foothills. Officials say the mine could extract about 154 million pounds of copper annually.

Joe Sandberg, Redhawk’s president and CEO, says the company has spent “several tens of millions” of dollars in recent years on the project and hopes to seek permits to mine the area in a couple of years.

The site lies in Pinal County, about 75 miles northeast of Tucson, 15 miles northeast of San Manuel and about eight miles northeast of the lower San Pedro River.